01/29/09 Say No to Fur Now and Forever

Animal Friends, Luka Nizetic and Cro A Porter in the national campaign "For Croatia without Fur"

Luka Nizetic has joined Animal Friends' campaign "For Croatia without Fur," which aims to stop the killing of animals to satisfy the needs of the fashion industry. The young singer from Split wants to make the public more sensitive to the global problem of exploiting animals for their fur.

As a part of this year's campaign against fur, after Fani Stipkovic, and taking after the world's celebrities, Luka has undressed and will appear, with the slogan "Say No to Fur Now and Forever," on billboards and City Lights posters. Starting from January 29 the billboards will be set up in Zagreb, Rijeka, Osijek, Varazdin, Sibenik, Dubrovnik, Pula, Djakovo, Slavonski Brod, Velika Gorica, Labin, and Zadar. Credits for the visual arrangement of the billboard go to Viktor Drago, and Dusko Vlaovic is the author of the photo.

Promotion and presentation of the main goal of the campaign "Say No to Fur Now and Forever" will be held on Tuesday, February 3, and will start at 8 P.M., at the Gjuro 2 club, in Medvescak 2, in Zagreb. On that occasion shocking videos of the killing of animals for the needs of the fashion industry will be shown, in the presence of representatives of Animal Friends, Luka Nizetic and Viktor Drago. Some celebrities who support this action are also expected at the press conference for the representatives of the media.

Wearing fur garments promotes an industry that, in the wild, traps animals in steel-jaw leghold traps in which they suffer slow, agonizing deaths. Some desperately chew off their legs to escape, especially mothers eager to nurse their babies! Traps that jerk the animals up in the air unable to escape, or pull them under water to drown, are also used.

Trapped animals freeze, or burn under a hot sun, and are helplessly attacked by predators... to death. Survivors are stomped, bludgeoned, strangled, drowned or beat up to death by the trappers to avoid staining their fur! Millions of domestic animals like dogs, birds, cats, rabbits, squirrels get trapped too and these they call "trash" die agonizing deaths!

Every year more than 75 million animals suffer and die because of the fur trade. Most animals are raised in fur farms where, after spending their lives in tiny, filthy cages, they are killed by gassing, electrocution, strangulation, suffocation, poisoning with strychnine, having their necks snapped, or red hot iron rods thrust up their anuses.

Wearing fur coats and fur trimmed items should be left in the past as part of a primitive legacy. Today, when we abound in high quality, ecologically much more acceptable materials, which are more attractive and keep us warm better than materials of animal origin, it is unacceptable to justify killing animals for clothes. Animal fur, to be preserved (in good condition), needs to be treated with poisonous chemicals, which includes using large amounts of water.

"It is an honor to be able to help Animal Friends in this way in their struggle to end the killing of animals for fur. People need to be informed every day and reminded of the horrors which are done to animals for the needs of fashion industry. There is no justification for fur, instead of being silent about it we should loudly say NO," said Luka Nizetic just before the start of the campaign.

Under the Croatian Animal Protection Act, breeding animals for fur has been banned since January 1, 2007, with a transition period of ten years, and the final goal of the campaign "For Croatia without Fur" is to ban the sale of clothes and shoes made of animal fur. As part of this campaign, a big protest will be held on February 28 in Zagreb to which Animal Friends already invites all citizens.

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Animal Friends is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, founded in 2001 with the aim to promote animal protection and animal rights as well as veganism, as ethical, ecological and healthy lifestyle.
Animal Friends Croatia is a member organization of EVU,
Eurogroup for Animals, ECEAE, FFA, IAFC and OIPA.